Скачать или смотреть Topological Analysis of Magnetic Reconnection in Kinetic Plasma Simulations

Authors: Divya Banesh, Li-Ta Lo, Patrick Kilian, Fan Guo, Bernd Hamann
VIS website: http://ieeevis.org/year/2020/welcome
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous plasma process in which oppositely directed magnetic field lines break and rejoin, resulting in a change of the magnetic field topology. Reconnection generates magnetic islands: regions enclosed by magnetic field lines and separated by reconnection points. Proper identification of these features is important to understand particle acceleration and overall behavior of plasma. We present a contour-tree based visualization for robust and objective identification of islands and reconnection points in two-dimensional (2D) magnetic reconnection simulations. The application of this visualization to a simple simulation has revealed a physical phenomenon previously not reported, resulting in a more comprehensive understanding of magnetic reconnection.